By LYNN STEINBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

At the Crown Hill Cemetery, established in 1903 by a group of Ballard citizens, owner John Miller presides over what is surely Crown Hill's most tranquil spot.

It's a little country cemetery that time forgot, a place where caretakers don't much worry about the dandelions.

Miller bought it three years ago and ever since has been painstakingly transferring onto his computer thousands of handwritten records.

On a recent morning, after escorting an elderly gentleman to the grave of a former neighbor, Miller took some time to discuss how he came to be president of Crown Hill's Chamber of Commerce, which hasn't met in a year.

"I was the last guy standing when the music stopped," he says.

Asked to describe Crown Hill, a region he represents on the neighborhood planning council, Miller quips: "It is a suburb of the great metropolis of Ballard."

(For more about the cemetery, see Jon Hahn's column.)